Monday, March 31, 2008 

Round the plot tonight and music talk.

Took a quick trip to the plot again tonight and when I say quick I mean quick. Basically, out the back of our house we have a small lane that seperates us from the plot - lucky me!

This old picture below was taken from our bedroom window and shows our small back garden that goes out to the lane then the plot is beyond that fence you can see.

View of plot from house.
(Click for bigger)

Of the 100 onion sets I planted yesterday, only one had been pulled up by a curious bird, so I quickly popped it back in and crumbled some dirt around it to tuck it back in.

The slug traps are really impressive, in all four traps I reckon I have caught about 40+ little baby slugs which surprised me as I have not seen any on the plot before today. Perhaps now is the time the baby slugs are old enough to leave the nest/hole/whatever?!? I am going to keep the bait fresh in these for the next few weeks to hopefully eradicate a lot of the slimy, greedy pests. The bait, if you're wondering, is 'Galahad' lager from Aldi's - only about 60p a can - thing is when putting the 'bait' in the trap its a case of "A bit for the trap, and a bit for me." ;-)

The only other thing done tonight was to pop some broken up card in the composter. I read its good for the compost and high in something or other.

Music:


I highly recommend Mike Oldfields new album called 'Music of the Spheres'. Mike Oldfield is the chap who brought us 'Tubular Bells' eons ago. The new album has a classical touch to it with elements of a theatre performance and flows like a soundtrack to a movie. Two of my favourite tracks are: 'On my Heart' - which has a lovely female, Enya-esque sound to it and the final track called 'Musica Universalis' which re-visits one of the tracks from 'Tubular Bells' - the epic one where he keeps saying what instrument he is about to play (if you know Tubular Bells you will know what one I mean).
Its a great album to listen to with a glass or two of wine after a hard days tolling in the allotment.

Speaking of slugs earlier, there is a song that comes to mind. It is called 'Slvg Dvb' by The Orb. Very funny song worth checking out.

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Sunday, March 30, 2008 

Lots done today.

Well, what a pleasant surprise the weather was today. Seeing that the prediction was supposed to be loads of rain, I didn't have any plans so made the most of it.

I finally managed to dig the last bit thats been hanging around for a while now. I also managed to plant all the red and white onion sets, empty the mint pot that produced bad mint last year (silver leaves), set up my mini greenhouse that was given to me from freecycle, I took some sage and lavender cuttings and even set-up 4 slug traps I got from Lidls a few weeks ago.

All in all a VERY productive day methinks!

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Friday, March 28, 2008 

IBC Root Beer.

I had a lovely, unexpected present awaiting my arrival from work today.

Louise had bought me 24 bottles of IBC Root Beer from an online store based in the UK :-)

American Soda import American products and are then able to despatch them direct to your door in the UK the very next day!

They even threw in 2 bars of Hershey's chocolate and a car air freshner - FOR FREE.

The only other place I have been getting my root beer fix is ASDA who sell 6 cans of 'Carters' root beer for about £1.09

What a fantastic way to start the weekend!

IBC Root Beer
(Click for bigger)


IBC Root Beer
(Click for bigger)

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Thursday, March 27, 2008 

Cuttings.

I did not visit the plot tonight and slightly regreted it after looking at the clock at 6:30pm and noticing how light it still was! I could have squeezed at least an hour in tonight if I hadn't have had my haircut booked in for 5:30pm. Nevermind the clocks go forward this weekend doubling that time to two hours per evening after work. :-)

Speaking of cutting, I am going to make some Sage and Lavender cuttings on my next outing to the plot, whenever that may be as the weather for the coming 5 days is rain, rain and more rain according to the BBC.

Making cuttings will be another first for me. It looks simple enough. I won't be using any powder or honey to help the rooting so will make many cuttings to enhance my chances of success.


Other jobs on the agenda:


Dig/de-weed final 6 meters of the last line.
Plant 100 onion sets (50 red and 50 white).
Sink some poles for my bean lines.
Tidy up the herb section.
Empty the mint pot and obtain some new mint from another allotee.
Set-up mini greenhouse.

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Wednesday, March 26, 2008 

Dragon Fruit.

Louise brought one of these weird looking things home from Morrisons the other day:


Dragon Fruit.
(Click for bigger)

It is called a Dragon Fruit and cost nearly £2 for 1!


I have never tasted one before so didn't have a clue what to expect. Basically, after cutting this mango sized fruit in half, its inside resembles a kiwi fruit with lots of little seeds, the texture is the same as a kiwi fruit too. The taste is a bit bland at first but then leaves (in my opinion) a pomegranate after taste.

I don't think we will be buying another one any time soon...

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Tuesday, March 25, 2008 

Another small update.

FACEBOOK:

What a crock of shit it is. I used it for two weeks and can't find anything good about the closed community. Two weeks - too much. How many more times can one possibly click 'Ignore'? - None thankfully as I de-activated my account.


ALLOTMENT:

I still have a small section to de-weed and turn. As soon as we get a bit more dry weather, I can finish that and get the onion sets in. Rent has been paid for the coming year and this year saw an increase of 25p to a whopping £4.50! Its funny - people do not believe that it only costs that much and often say "is that for a week?"

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Tuesday, March 11, 2008 

Mini Update...

FACEBOOK:

I finally sold out to facebook. Originally, I was just going to sign up to it and leave alone then check it every month or something to see what would happen, but after playing with it tonight to try to get used to it I ended up adding some friends.


ALLOTMENT:

Where the heck is time going??? I seriously need to get around the plot to turn and prepare the last two lines. I also need to set-up my mini greenhouse as soon as this windy weather abates to start propagating my seeds. The next thing I need to do is get my 100 onion sets in.


ME:

I am going teetotal. People who know me will probably laugh at that but its something I need to do after many years of drinking in the evenings for relaxation. 8 days so far with no problems.

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